Comments by "peabase" (@peabase) on "Ukraine rules out cease-fire as Donbas attacks intensify | DW News" video.

Usually, it's the retreating defender that resorts to a scorched-earth policy. In Soviet Russia's case, it's the attacker that adopts a scorched-earth policy.
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İbrahim Moncada It's bad form to copy-paste the same comment all over the place. Boring, too.
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@seamonster936 Fighting an insurgency implies that you're in control of the area that you're laying to waste. Russia isn't.
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@startracksha Russia has scorched its own earth on more than one occasion. Let's leave it to you, shall we? And not only that, more Russians have died at their countrymen's hands than at those of anyone else.
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@pietmondrianstudent6984 Even more famously, scorched-earth policy was used against Napoleon when he invaded Russia. Then Russia was given the scorched earth treatment when its soldiers invaded Finland in the Winter War. In both conflicts, whole divisions froze to death.
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@startracksha Civil wars tend to result in fewer deaths than when the enemy is foreign. Still, autocratic countries like Russia and China buck the trend. After all, mass executions and genocide are acceptable weapons to autocrats.
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@qillqiggins294 I'm sure you'd surrender the moment your country is attacked by a vicious enemy that's bent on wholesale slaughter and destruction.
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@grimskid Russia will have to mobilise its reserves in order to continue the fight in Ukraine. Putin knows that's a recipe for popular unrest, perhaps even a trigger for a colour revolution. Putin's lost his gamble in late February. The rest is just a stay of execution for him.
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@aeye9772 It's like you're saying that cavemen were rich because there was oil deep underneath their feet. If you can't extract it and/or find buyers for it, it's not growing your economy.
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@aeye9772 You're forgetting that in order to increase domestic manufacturing, Russia needs foreign technology and investment. Besides, Russia has consistently failed to diversify its economy for decades. You think it's happening now with strict sanctions in place? It's not a resource issue.
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@aeye9772 Sure, Russia has obsolete Soviet-era space technology. I'd like to see Russians drive Soyuz rockets instead of Hyundais, KIAs, Volkswagens and Skodas.
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@aeye9772 We'll see rebranded Chinese cars, passed off as Russian ones. And they'll lack a great many features that we take for granted. Even if they're assembled in Russia instead of China, the Chinese won't pass on technology that falls only Western sanctions. They'll be crappy Volgas and Moskviches all right, like we know them from Soviet times.
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@aeye9772 Sure, if you prefer 50-year old tech to modern cars. Russia will be so retro soon.
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@philipilinsky2930 Now, why would I be upset? I'm not saddled with the "best performing currency" and eye-watering inflation. You're a mental child if you think the rouble's resurgence is a sign of Russia's economy improving. Desperate times, desperate measures, more like.
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@wom_Bat Scorched-earth makes no sense unless you're retreating and want to slow the enemy's advance, or when you're temporarily occupying the territory and you want to deny your enemy a base for a future attack. Neither applies here.
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@wom_Bat So you changed stance. That was quick.
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@wom_Bat No, you suggested that scorched-earth policy is equally useful when attacking. It's not. It's extraordinary. Scorched-earth policy is typically used when you're retreating or when you're holding enemy territory, but you want to deny its use by your enemy and, ultimately, yourself.
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@wom_Bat No, it's not. You can argue that carpet bombing equates scorched-earth policy, but you'd find that very few military experts agree with you. However, Operation Ranch Hand from the Vietnam War does qualify.
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@wom_Bat Oh noes. Yes, this can be likened to scorched earth, and it's still extraordinary. Yet it's not scorched earth because it doesn't make sense. A policy is supposed to make sense. I don't think you have the intellectual capacity to understand complex matters like this.
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@wom_Bat Are you trying to convince me that Putin didn't have a plan or that his strategies seem odd, to say the least? That's what have I been trying to argue all along. Debate isn't your thing, is it?
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You believe wrongly, Mr. Whataboutism. Scorched-earth policy entails destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy. Libya, Iraq and Yugoslavia don't fit the bill. Ukraine does fit the bill. Russia is destroying everything and anything, even when they don't don't go on the offensive. It's as if Russia is destroying Ukraine out of spite, because it can't have it.
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